Spiritual Eyes

John 9:24-34 English Standard Version

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

Definitions of idealogue. someone who theorizes (especially in science or art) Definitions.com

Note that this definition does not include religion. I think that is right because faith is not based on theory, and it is tested in ways that prove itself to be true.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

1 Peter 1:7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The acts of those who denied the blind man’s witness were intractable: adjective. not easily controlled or directed; not docile or manageable; stubborn; obstinate which once again sounds like those stiffnecked.

  • Exodus 33:5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’”
  • Exodus 34:9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Jesus Christ is the answer to Moses’ prayer. But He was rejected by the intractable ideologues.

Isaiah 26

Isaiah 26:16-18 English Standard Version

16 O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.
17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord;
18  we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

I can understand why Israel had a nationalistic view as it is stated in verse 2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.”

Now in our life we are given the Word to understand what being born again means. I see how verse 18 might have been misunderstood by the religious leaders of that time. Giving birth to the Spirit because wind in that verse in the Hebrew is רוּחַ rûwach, roo’-akh; from H7306; wind; by resemblance breath. It could be misconstrued as something else and not the spiritual birth by the breath of God.

Hints of a future event that are not clearly understood will not sway people to give up their point of view. Israel held firmly to their nationalistic promises and ignored any personal connection. Here is an opinion that I found in the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia:  “It is very remarkable that a doctrine of life after death as an essential part of religion was of very late development in Israel, although this doctrine, often highly elaborated, was commonly held among the surrounding nations. The chief cause of this lateness was that Israel’s religion centered predominantly in the ideal of a holy nation. Consequently the individual was a secondary object of consideration, and the future of the man who died before the national promises were fulfilled either was merged in the future of his descendants or else was disregarded altogether.”

Perhaps this is why the words of Jesus were so readily accepted when the people heard them. He did not disregard them in any way. He took His message to the people who were thirsty for the Word because the religious leaders of the day did not give them a second thought.

When leaders stop tending to the needs of the people, the people stop listening.

Matthew 11:7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

A reed is not stiff and bends to the breath of God.

Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.